Paul Greengrass Abandons Fantastic Voyage To Focus On Pegleg Kung Fu

Paul Greengrass has chosen pirate ships over angry blood vessels. A few weeks ago he was circling the James Cameron produced remake of The Fantastic Voyage, a movie in which people shrink themselves to be injected into a human’s bloodstream. Deadline says he’s bowing out now, not because he’s Greengrass and he’s far too talented to waste time with Hollywood’s never ending string of remakes, but because he’d rather remake something else.

Word is that he’s focusing on an adaptation of Treasure Island instead. They’re aiming for a stylized take on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel and it’s being produced by the guy behind Sherlock Holmes. I guess that means Long John Silver will now do kung fu. Why not, this stories been so many times already, it’s not like there’s much else left. You’ve got to find something new to do with it.

Greengrass hasn’t committed to Treasure Island yet, there’s some debate over hiring a screenwriter, but it sounds like he’s definitely uncommitted to Fantastic Voyage which means James Cameron’s on the lookout for someone else. In my perfect world, Greengrass would go back to Fantastic Voyage and Treasure Island would hire Werner Herzog or Lars von Trier. Then Long John Silver’s kung fu would be replaced with an unhealthy, erotic lust for trees. It’d be ironic, since he has a pegleg which is made from trees. Oh the dramatic possibilities! Think Lars and the Real Girl at sea.

That’ll never happen though, so they’ll look for someone mainstream to direct Fantastic Voyage instead. Maybe that Cameron fellow would like to direct something that doesn’t involve blue cat people. Fantastic Voyage does involve a submarine and it takes place inside the bloodstream, which is pretty much like being underwater. Cameron’s addicted to submarine exploration and this is the next best thing.